THE CAUCUS; The Ad Campaign: Indiana Senate Race Heats Up

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

Published: June 15, 2012

Something surprising seems to be stirring in Indiana: a Senate race.

With a $250,000 infusion from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Representative Joe Donnelly, the Democrats' standard-bearer for the seat now held by Senator Richard G. Lugar, a Republican, began broadcasting a new campaign advertisement on Thursday. It frames Mr. Donnelly as the moderate conciliator while painting as a partisan bomb-thrower his Republican opponent, Richard E. Mourdock, the Tea Party favorite who beat Mr. Lugar in the Republican primary.

The move comes just days after the Republican ''super PAC,'' Crossroads GPS, unveiled a $4.6 million advertising buy in six Senate contests, including a large ad run in Indiana. That advertisement presents Mr. Donnelly as a spendthrift who voted in lockstep with President Obama's budget-busting ways. ''He even voted to raise the debt limit four times,'' the narrator says.

The contest in Indiana could still end up a one-sided affair. Both the nonpartisan Cook Political Report and Rothenberg Political Report rate it as leaning Republican. With millions flowing from groups like Crossroads, it will be difficult for Democrats to keep pace when they are defending so many seats. Democrats are likely to make defending incumbents, like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, a higher priority than snatching away a Republican seat in a Republican state.

But for now, the Republican line that Mr. Mourdock's big win will not change the deep red tint of the Indiana Senate seat appears to be negated by what is actually on television there.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.